Williams, Tennessee [né Thomas Lanier Williams] (1911–83), playwright. Considered by many to be the leading dramatist of his age, he was born in Columbus, Mississippi. His father was a violent, aggressive traveling salesman; his mother, the high‐minded, puritanical daughter of a clergyman; his elder sister, a young woman beset by mental problems that eventually led to her being institutionalized. His family thus provided him with the seeds for characters who would people so many of his plays. He attended several universities before graduating from the State University of Iowa. During this time some of his early works were produced at regional and collegiate playhouses while he held numerous odd jobs. Williams's first play to receive a major production was
Battle of Angels (1940), which folded on the road. Success came with his
The Glass Menagerie (1945), followed by such popular dramas as
A Streetcar Named Desire (1947),
Summer and Smoke (1948),
The Rose Tattoo (1951),
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955),
Sweet Bird of Youth (1959),
Period of Adjustment (1960), and
The Night of the Iguana (1961). During these years he had a number of failures, including
You Touched Me! (1945),
Camino Real (1953), and
Orpheus Descending (1957), but in later years they would be re‐examined, and some would find favor. Although he continued to write and be produced, the plays that followed
The Night of the Iguana were neither critical nor commercial successes. His preoccupation with social degeneracy and homosexuality, which had heretofore been contained by his sense of theatre and poetic dialogue, overcame these saving restraints and lost him a public for the newer works. Among these later works were
In the Bar in a Tokyo Hotel (1969),
Small Craft Warnings (1972),
Outcry (1973),
Vieux Carré (1978), and
Clothes for a Summer Hotel (1980). Fifteen years after his death, an early work titled
Not about Nightingales was uncovered and, when it was produced on Broadway in 1999, proved to be a critical success. Williams's strengths in playwriting were in his vivid characterizations and glistening dialogue. His subject matter was sometimes crude or brutal, but his writing remained elegant and poetic. Biography:
The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams, Donald Spoto, 1985.
